Edmonton Indy To Remain In City For At Least Next Three Years

Octane Motorsports Will Promote, Organize Edmonton Race Over Next Three years

Edmonton city officials have completed an agreement to continue to hold
an Izod IndyCar Series race "locally for the next three years,"
according to Gordon Kent of the EDMONTON JOURNAL. A deal with promoter
Octane Motorsports was announced in November, but Edmonton CFO Lorna
Rosen yesterday said that it "took six weeks and a meeting at the
company's Montreal headquarters before contracts were signed." The city
will arrange a $3M (all figures Canadian) paving project "on about 4.5
hectares along the City Centre Airport's east side to help make a track
out of the runway closed last August." Edmonton is contributing $2M,
"paying off the expense with an estimated $450,000 in annual parking
fees." Local businesses will kick in $1M worth of "labour, material and
cash." The Edmonton City Council also voted to provide $5.5M in
sponsorship and $1.5M in "transit, police and other free services over
three years, but it won't have to cover any deficits." The "planned
redevelopment of the airport means the race will have to find another
home by 2014 at the latest." Rosen said that it "needs to be within
city limits, preferably with a view of the skyline to show on TV" (EDMONTON JOURNAL, 1/12).
The CP reported Octane "has also reached agreement on a three-year
deal" with the IndyCar Series "to promote and organize the race." The
race site "shifted from the western to the eastern runway as part of
plans to move operations to Edmonton's International airport." Octane
President Francois Dumontier said that the move "would help make the
race more attractive because the site now is under the city's
jurisdiction and will no longer be under airport rules that restricted
where grandstands could be erected." He added that bleachers "can be
set up closer to the track and more box seating can be added" (CP, 1/11).
In Edmonton, Terry Jones reports Octane "managed to sign a sanctioning
fee with IndyCar at a significantly lower rate than the one Northlands
previously negotiated" (EDMONTON SUN, 1/12).